Ships
- IJN Yamato Captain from 16 December 1941
Gihachi Takayanagi was born in Saga Prefecture on 17 April 1891, the son of Yonekichi Takayanagi. He passed the entrance examinations for both the army academy and the naval academy and entered the navy. In December 1913 he graduated with the 41st class of the Naval Academy at Etajima, and in December 1914 he was commissioned an ensign. Gunnery became his specialty. He finished the advanced course at the Naval Gunnery School in November 1920, served as a division officer in the old battleship Kashima and as gunnery officer of the destroyer Umikaze, and taught at the gunnery school. In November 1927 he completed the A course of the Naval Staff College with its 25th class.
Staff and gunnery appointments followed. He was gunnery officer of the light cruiser Natori and the coast-defense ship Asama, served at the Kure naval barracks, and became gunnery officer of the heavy cruiser Nachi. He sat on the staff of the First Fleet and the Combined Fleet, then worked in the second section of the Navy Ministry Education Bureau. Promoted captain in December 1936, he was attached to the Yokosuka Naval District. In April 1937 he took command of the light cruiser Tatsuta. He returned to the Gunnery School as chief instructor, commanded the heavy cruiser Suzuya from November 1939, and commanded the battleship Ise from October 1940. In September 1941 he was attached to the Kure Naval District and assigned to the new battleship still completing in the yard.
On 16 December 1941, in the second week of the Pacific War, Yamato was commissioned at Kure with Takayanagi as captain. The ceremony was kept plain, because the navy was still concealing the ship. She was the heaviest battleship yet built, and her nine 46-centimeter guns were the largest ever mounted in a warship. That day she joined Battleship Division 1 with Nagato and Mutsu, home-ported at Kure, and she spent the following weeks correcting deficiencies and working up in the Inland Sea. On 12 February 1942 the flag of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Fleet, shifted to her from Nagato. His chief of staff, Matome Ugaki, and the fleet staff made the new battleship their headquarters. In late March, with Yamamoto watching, a shoot out to about 23 miles was judged a failure after the men on the main rangefinder misread the horizontal settings, and Takayanagi and his gunnery officer were taken to task. On 1 May 1942 he was promoted to rear admiral. Late that month the ship was accepted as operational.
For the Midway operation Yamato left Hashirajima on 29 May 1942 with the First Fleet Main Body, about 300 miles behind the carrier striking force. The battleship never closed the enemy. After the American carriers destroyed the striking force, Yamamoto called off the night attack and then the operation from his flagship, and Yamato was back at Hashirajima on 14 June. She remained the Combined Fleet flagship in home waters through the summer. On 17 August she sailed from Kure for Truk with Yamamoto and his staff. On 28 August, short of the lagoon, the American submarine Flying Fish fired four torpedoes at her. Her captain had no recognition plate for a ship of this class and took her for a Kongo, and he believed he had scored. The torpedoes burst early. Yamato entered Truk undamaged and became the fleet headquarters afloat.
She stayed at the anchorage through the fighting for Guadalcanal. Ammunition suited to bombarding shore positions was lacking, the charts for those waters were poor, and the navy would not spend her fuel on a sortie it preferred to save for a fleet battle. On 17 October she and Mutsu each passed about 4,500 tons of oil to the empty tanker Kenyo Maru so that ships actually operating off the island could refuel. On 17 December 1942, still at Truk, Chiaki Matsuda relieved Takayanagi in command.
On 6 January 1943 Takayanagi became chief of staff of the First Fleet, and he held that post until the fleet was dissolved on 25 February 1944. The same day he was appointed vice principal and head of instruction at the Naval Academy. He also commanded the Kure Training Squadron until December 1944, while keeping the academy posts. On 1 May 1945 he was promoted to vice admiral. On 5 May he became director of the Navy Ministry Education Bureau, and on 27 May he added the Imperial General Headquarters office charged with training fighting strength. On 20 August 1945, after Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi took his own life, Takayanagi was named the last vice chief of the Naval General Staff. He was attached to the Navy Ministry in October, placed on the reserve on 20 November 1945, and later barred from public office under the postwar purge. He died on 29 December 1973.
His year in Yamato was her first year in commission. The ship remained in service long after he left her. Takeji Ono commanded her from September 1943, and Nobuei Morishita had her through the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, when she sailed in the force led by Takeo Kurita. Kosaku Aruga took command that November. On 7 April 1945, with Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito embarked, Yamato sortied toward Okinawa with a light cruiser and eight destroyers and was sunk by American carrier aircraft southwest of Kyushu. Aruga and Ito went down with the ship.